DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
was born in the first third of the nineteenth
century on American soil of Presbyterian parentage.
Under the guidance of its forebears,
Scots Irish immigrants Thomas Campbell
(1763–1854), his son, Alexander (1788–1866),
Walter Scott (1796–1861), and the Marylandborn
Barton Warren Stone (1772–1844), it
focused on the restoration of biblical principles
that stressed the unity of the church, reliance
on New Testament authority, and selfgovernance
of local congregations.

In the formative years no specific orders of
clergy or church organization existed, and still
today there is no official book of discipline
that manages church life. Each congregation
was to call and consecrate its own leaders.
Those leaders earned their livings as farmers,
merchants, bankers, teachers, and doctors in
their communities and served as elders, deacons,
and preachers in the church. The selection
of local leaders, including clergy, remains
a tenet of Disciples' practice today.

Adhering to no established creed as a test
of fellowship, the movement advocated the
blending of reason, a capacity of the human
intellect, with revelation through the inspiration
of the Bible. Two ordinances (sacraments)
continue to be observed: the weekly
celebration of the Lord's Supper, commonly
called the breaking of bread, and baptism by
immersion for the remission of sins offered to
those able to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior,
commonly referred to as believer's baptism.

There were four guiding principles defined
as ideals of this movement: unity, restoration,
liberty, and mission. Mission essentially was
confined to the United States. Foreign mission
fields were of interest but early on were not
considered a priority. It was not until the last
two decades of the nineteenth century and
into the beginning of the twentieth that Disciples
engaged in overseas ministries intentionally
and with purpose. The home missionary
enterprise was active and devoted to
building new congregations and chartering
educational institutions. Predominantly located
in county seats along the American
frontier, Disciple evangelists and church
planters followed the westward migration of
the expanding nation. These new congregations
appropriated the rugged individualism
and institutional independence that characterized
the national mood.

States and territories west of the Mississippi
River destined for development were Missouri,
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, particularly
as the evangelists and planters followed
the cattle trails and the railroads in
these latter three states. To a lesser extent,
church settlements were established in Iowa,
Nebraska, and Colorado, with virtually none
in Montana and Wyoming. The appeal of the
Disciples movement was to western Europeans,
especially those from the British Isles.
With the exception of Oklahoma, with its
unique political configuration of the Indian
and Oklahoma territories, there was little expansion
into Native lands or mission to Native
peoples.

The current membership and number of
congregations, according to a 1997 denominational
census, reflects little change from earlier
days. Twenty-three percent of the total membership
and 25 percent of the Disciples of
Christ churches in the United States and Canada
are located in the Great Plains. Of those
figures, 84 percent of the membership and 85
percent of the churches still are concentrated
in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, even though
the dust of the cattle trails has settled and the
boom of the railroads has faded.

John M. Imbler
Philips Theological Seminary

Garrison, Winfred Ernest, and Alfred T. De Groot. The
Disciples of Christ: A History. St. Louis: Christian Board of
Education, 1948.